A planetary drive arrangement is often used in a vehicle driven wheel unit for providing high and low operating speeds as well as stepped speed reductions effected by routing power delivered by drive unit motors (hydrostatic or electric, for example) through multiple planetary gear stages. While those familiar with powered wheel units have long appreciated the severe limitations that such designs place upon available space in which to locate the drive motor and constituent components of the planetary gear arrangements of such wheel units, they will agree that these space constraints are even more severe when the wheel units are being used to drive wheels of a row-crop tractor intended for being driven between rows of crop planted as close as 20 inches (508 mm) apart and when the wheel units are powered by an electric motor. In this particular usage of a drive unit, it is important for the drive unit to be axially compact, while maintaining desired torque output and reliability in view of the ever increasing size of implements being drawn or carried by the tractor. Therefore, what is needed is a driven wheel unit especially designed for use with a row-crop tractor to be driven between rows of crop spaced apart as narrow as 20 inches (508 mm).